ʿAmudah – Along the lines of Stalinism: PYD security forces shut down another radio and raid Yekîtî office

PRESS RELEASE

18 November 2016Kurdish National Council in Syria – Geneva Office

On Wednesday, November 16, 2016, in ʿAmudah employees of Asayiș, the security forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), stormed the premises of the radio station Amûdê FM and arrested four staff members, namely Noshin Ahmad, Ava Khano, Pesheng Khane and Sipan Haj Qasim. They were released a few hours later, but the Asayiș seized the technical equipment of the radio, locked the station and prohibited the continuation of its broadcasting.
Only one day later, on Thursday, November 17, the Asayiș of the PYD trespassed the office of the Kurdish Union Party in Syria (Yekîtî) in ʿAmudah. Nine Yekîtî members were abducted, including Hasan Salih, Deputy General Secretary of the party, Sulayman Oso, Anwar Naso, Sabri Mirza, Maroof Mula Ahmad and ʿAbdussamad Khalaf Biro, all of them members of the politburo of Yekîtî, as well as Husayn Shahadah, Mahmud Haso and ʿAbdi Ijo. A group of people was trapped in the buidling, while computers and documents were unlawfully confiscated by the Asayiș. Since then, the building is controlled in order to inhibit the resumption of the political work of the Yekîtî.

These attacks prove once more the PYD’s claim to ban any dissenting opinion from the mainly Kurdish populated areas. Since 2012, when power was transferred from the Assad regime to the Demcratic Union Party, media which are not controlled by the PYD as well as other Syrian Kurdish parties are subject to increasingly repressive measures, ranging from harrassment and defamation to abduction and murder. Since mid-August 2016, activists and politicians of member parties of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) are abducted nearly on a daily basis. Dozens languish in PYD prisons with no prospect of fair proceedings. Their only wrongdoing is the commitment to democracy and pluralism.
The international community remains silent, stuck in the delusion that the PYD would be a democratic force and its militia, the so called People’s Protection Units (YPG), an indispensable partner for the fight against ISIS.

The Kurdish National Council in Syria firmly rejects the repressive politics of the PYD. We stand alongside the innumerable victims, today especially alongside Amûdê FM and the abducted Yekîtî members. We will not retreat from the resistance against the PYD’s dictatorship and we call on the population of the predominately Kurdish inhabited territories in Syria to also show its resistance.
Additionally, we appeal to the international community to adhere to the values of freedom and democracy when choosing allies and to pressure the PYD to stop its politics of oppression. To remain silent in view of the injustice committed in Northern Syria each and every day strengthens the position of the PYD and paves the way for the expansion of its dictatorship.

About KNC Geneva Office

The Geneva Office of the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) organizes the activities of the members of the KNC in Europe. We are glad to mediate contacts or arrange interviews with represenatives of the KNC.
Moreover, our website, which is currently work in progress, will soon inform you about the political positions of the KNC, publish its press releases and its current activities. A special focus will be on the peace negotiations in Geneva.